Chapter 2- Voices

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Sentries were busy shouting and waking up soldiers, in a futile attempt to fight the invaders.

Artillian saw the chaos around him. Tents were on fire, thousands of men were battling everywhere. The sounds of metal clashing were reverberating in the boy's ears.

He got up as fast as he could and put on his armor. As soon as he was prepared, he looked up and saw one of his comrades being beheaded. It was the soldier who had talked about the wandering rumor.

His head rolled on the ground and stopped near Artillian, the look of disbelief still in his eyes.

Fear immediately gripped Artillian. He realized that he was too frightened to do anything. His shield suddenly felt unbearable and his spear felt heavy. He was rooted to his spot, completely unable to move.

The enemy who had beheaded the talkative soldier then put Artillian into his sights. He was a large man with hair covering most of his face. His eyes radiated killing intent. He held a spear in one hand and a sword in the other. Both weapons were as light as sticks in his hands and he waved them around with experienced proficiency. Without wasting a single second he ran towards Artillian.

Artillian was too frightened to do anything. He could only watch as the enemy drove a spear into his heart. Seeing that the boy was falling, the enemy soldier was convinced that Artillian was dead. Pleased with his work, he walked past Artillian. He looked for his next prey. He immediately found a soldier who was dressing up a few meters away and grinned savagely. He assumed he had found another easy kill and took a step forward, when suddenly a spear head had gone through his throat.

The pain was unbearable, but it was nothing compared to his shock. He didn't understand what had just happened. He was confident that no other soldiers were behind his back. There were at least a 5 meters of safe space around him. Only dead bodies were within that space. As a veteran he was confident in his abilities as was sure that he was not wrong.

The spear head removed itself from his throat, blood leaving his body in a fountain. He used his final moments to see the man who had killed him. What he saw made him feel powerless.

It was the boy he had just killed! It was Artillian! The large man was shocked beyond belief. He was positive that he had pierced the boy's heart, yet when he looked toward his chest, there was no wound. Although there was a hole in his armor, his chest was perfectly fine.

The large men wanted to know what had happened, unfortunately he never would. He hated himself for letting his guard down; even though he was sure he had killed the boy. Unfortunately, there was no cure in this world for regret.

Artillian saw the large man fall. His eyes filled with satisfaction at his work. He had killed the man, whilst he was in a stupor. Although he wasn't fully conscious of his actions, he was pleased, pleased that he had gotten revenge.

That's when he properly took in his surroundings. A look of disbelief was on his face. He looked at his own body in disbelief, as if something was off. He then noticed that his originally fair hair, which was dangling in front of his eyes, was turning white right in front of his eyes. It became white as snow. Even though it was in the middle of the night, the raging fires all around made things easy to see.

The look of confusion quickly turned into a frown. Artillian then spoke in a voice that sounded somehow different.

"What the f*ck?"

"......"

"Argghhh....WHY DO I SOUND LIKE A BITCH!!!!!!!!!?"

"Do you mind not using such vulgar language in the presence of a Lady?"

As he spewed vulgarities in his mind he suddenly heard a sweet but annoyed voice ringing in his ears. He had a baffled look on his face as he looked left and right trying to figure out where the voice was sounding from, but the more he looked at his surroundings the more dumbfounded he became. The scenes he was witnessing were those of blood and gore, and in these scenes there was no woman in sight.

"Who?"

"Just shut up and run, I doubt you will be able to survive here. Judging by how weak you are now it will be impossible for you to fight all these men seeing as how the former host's side is at an disadvantage"

"Who are you and where are you.......?." said Artillian while looking for the source of the voice.

"Listen child, just run and find a safe place to hide in. I will explain everything then"

Artillian the said, " I don't know if you've noticed ma'am but there is nowhere to run, its slaughter in every Direction" Artillian was confident that whoever was speaking to him was nowhere nearby, but now was not the time to be picky about such details. He could tell that whoever was talking to him meant him no harm. On the contrary she seemed to be attempting to help him.

"Just run to your right and as for those soldiers do not worry about them I will deal with them, there is a cave about a mile from here, you should be safe there "

"Sorry lady I was raised not to trust strangers."

"Well now it's either you listen to me or you die for a second time, your choice young man."

"How did you-?"

"Child just run!!!" shouted the voice.

Artillian vigorously nodded his head as he started running straight toward the heart of the battle, not knowing how he was going to survive. He ran with no weapon in hand so the opposing soldiers saw him as an easy target, so a group three began to charge towards him with malicious glints in their eyes. As he noticed this Artillian began to sweat bullets and just as he thought his life would end for a second time the lady took action

"Hearth Second Technique: Flaming Tiger of Beauty and Rage"

Just as she finished her chant an illusionary Tiger embodied in flames rose up behind Artillian and with a loud roar it collapsed into a sea of flames as it swept the battlefield burning everything and everyone it came into contact with. Artillian was shocked with what he saw, and as the flames raged, a trace of fear could be seen in his eyes and this led to his speed to increase several folds.

He kept running until he reached an area that was slightly rocky and he noticed that the cave was just about 20 meters away from his current location. He slowed down because he could not see where he was stepping so he had to be extra careful with his footing, and because of that it took him at least five minutes to cover 20 meters. He entered the cave and sighed in relief as he plopped down to the ground and lay there like a dead dog for a full 10 minutes before he regained his wits.

"So ummm....very...... powerful..... Lady..... Could you please explain to me my current situation and how you are just a voice?" said Artillian in the most polite tone he could muster.

"Listen carefully young man, I do not have much time. That last attack took most of my energy, so I need a full night to recuperate. My name is Hestia, and I am a soul currently residing inside your body, how this happened I am not too sure but I am sure everything will be explained in due time, but for now I will explain what I know so listen..........

When you jumped off that building I decided to save you using my Divine Essence, but in the process your body started sucking in all the essence I had thus this explains why I am inside your body and this also explains why you are in this situation. You see because you sucked in so much of my Divine Essence I was powerless to stop you from hitting the ground, and even though you did die because of my Essence your soul did not enter the reincarnation cycle properly thus it forced itself to be reincarnated without the proper procedure that is why you ended up here. So do you understand?"

After hearing the explanation,all Artillian could say was, "Uhhh........."